This Is How It Is
by Nyhne
Summary: In the period between wars, Austria's country falls to ruin. There seem to be few surprises these days, but maybe that's because they've never fallen quite so close to the heart. Interwar period; hinted PruAus.


Back-up PruAus Secret Santa fill for Tumblr user arthurkirklandscones, who wanted to see Prussia and Austria as countries during the WWII period with Austria coping with being a single nation. Historical notes at the end. Also, you can probably tell that I am really awful with rating fics- so feel free to correct me on that!

[**Warnings:** mentions of violence]

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><p>Austria had been standing in his office when the Chancellor was shot.<p>

There had been little finesse in the assassination, though he is able to think in retrospect that an uprising would have never succeeded, anyway.

Dollfuss had fallen to the ground face first, blood already spreading into the manmade earth and a heavy feeling in the air like gravity had shifted and time had slowed, so that even behind his eyelashes, Austria could see every action happen simultaneously and acutely. They had shot him, too, but Austria remembers that less, because Dollfuss had been a current event and he was just history.

Austria wonders what Dollfuss had been thinking in his last, agonizing moments of human life, lying on the floor of his office while men in his own country's uniform had barked orders over his head that nobody was allowed to treat the Chancellor.

Austria had thought about Germany. Germany and what was happening to Europe and what would happen to him. He had thought about Germany and Hungary and sweet little Veneziano who had been swept up in a dictatorship of his own.

He had even thought about Prussia, though he would never admit it, and he had thought about Prussia for the longest of four. The nineteenth century had made them feel truly human, Austria had thought, because it had contained the story of their rise and fall all within a tidy one hundred year lifespan. He wonders if Prussia had ever thought about it that way.

For hours they had laid there, two slain symbols of a country they had loved. The Chancellor had faded in and out of consciousness, and his thick, human blood had oozed slowly across the floor just like the Danube cut through Vienna. If Austria had been able to find his words, he would have tried to comfort him, but there was little he could say even to himself.

He must have passed out, too, at some point, because when he had opened his eyes next, he was in a wheelchair and flags were flying on the streets and Veneziano was standing next to him looking the oldest Austria had ever seen him.

* * *

><p>"Makes you wonder where we went wrong, sometimes, huh?" Prussia said to him one day when it was raining outside and Austria was visiting- just visiting- to discuss diplomatic matters with Germany.<p>

Of course Germany, young and driven as he was, had been too busy to meet- and an untimely storm had started up and Austria had never really liked driving in such weather since he had to drive himself these days (he was still recovering from months cooped up in that wheelchair, after all), and thus, Austria was stuck at Germany and Prussia's shared household until the storm passed. He watched a field of black umbrellas bloom and dull buildings somehow become even duller under the grey weather, the lack of culture making his nose scrunch.

"I couldn't possibly know what you mean," he replied dryly, not bothering to face the other like proper etiquette demanded because he knew Prussia wouldn't have care if he [conformed] anyway.

There was an audible eye roll from where the Prussian was standing by the chair and Austria had sighed to himself, waiting for the impatient reply to follow.

"'Course you don't, Little Master. How presumptuous of me to assume you'd be that self-aware," the other sneered in a mocking tone.

Austria hefted another sigh. "Fine. Then why don't you enlighten me, since I am apparently so inept in your eyes," he returned testily.

There was another eye roll. "Come on, don't tell me you've never thought about it before. The Confederation…all our battles over the kid….I mean, don't you ever think about how it influenced what's happening now?" Prussia persisted.

"Of course I have thought about it," Austria frowned. "But there is nothing we can do to change the past. Likewise, there is little I can do to change the will of my people now, so why should I dwell on what can't be changed?" he asked matter-of-factly.

"That's bullshit."

Austria frowned at the vulgarity, his attention distracted from the streets. He turned to face Prussia's opposing frown and creased his brow just enough to prompt the other to continue.

"You're _Austria_," Prussia emphasized. "You _are_ the will of the people. So don't give me any of that 'can't change anything' crap because we both know that isn't true. You were talking to Dollfuss about scaling back when he was shot, weren't you?"

Austria flinched at the name but Prussia continued, "And I'm sure as hell that you've used your status of a Nation to gain alliances that wouldn't have been formed under the 'will of the people' otherwise."

Heat flared in Austria's stomach and he clenched his fist, shoulders stiff. "Even if I could influence the public, I cannot stop Germany's actions and you know that just as well as I do, Prussia," he retorted hotly. "You know how determined your brother is."

Prussia's belligerence seemed to deflate some and Austria felt oddly confused, watching as his lifetime rival stuck his hands in his pockets and kicked at the rug. "Yeah, I do know," he muttered and Austria had to strain his ears forward to catch it. "Lutz sure has grown up over the years, hasn't he?"

Austria wondered if he had imagined the bitterness in the other's voice. He knew the years following the Great War hadn't been easy on Prussia, either. They were one in the same on that, he supposed.

"Prussia…" he began but the other cut his apologetic tone off with a shake of his head.

"It's stopped raining," Prussia said gruffly.

Austria looked outside to where black umbrella flowers were closing up once more and puddles were becoming reflections on the ground. It had stopped raining, but the sky didn't look any less grey.

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><p>The streets fluttered with red and white but Austria knew it wasn't <em>his<em> red and white because there was black, too, and black was the color of _his_ flag and wasn't it bitterly ironic that the confederation he had once sought so hard to belong to he was now a part of?

* * *

><p>Somebody flopped back on the couch and lit up a cigarette.<p>

Austria couldn't _see_ it, but he could _smell_ it, and though Austria couldn't _see_ who had entered the living room, he knew it was Prussia.

"Do you mind?" he said pointedly, turning to where Prussia was sprawled out on the cushions, curls of white smoke separating them like a veil. Germany would probably yell at him for smoking indoors. He was big on health and propaganda these days.

Prussia blew out a new ring and ignored him, to Austria's annoyance. There was a pause between them and after another drag, Prussia asked, bluntly and without a hint of shame, "So. You slept with my brother yet?"

Austria's façade stumbled, to Prussia's visible satisfaction, and he choked out, "I beg your pardon?"

"You know," he shrugged. "The whole 'Anschluss' thing. It's basically like one of your stupid political marriages from back in the day, isn't it? I know you slept with Spain, at least. And Hungary," he sneered, "though I bet she still to-"

"That is none of your business," Austria cut in sharply, pointed nose upturned in indignation and the sparks of anger behind his eyes.

Prussia's lip curled and some of the ash fell from his cigarette. To his credit, he didn't even seem to notice. "Actually, he's my little brother, so I think it is. Didn't hear any beds rocking, so I guess he mustn't have been too rough," he said nastily, and Austria's posture tightened. "Lutz usually only brings out the chains and whips after the second time."

"Prussia!" Austria snapped furiously, though the dark flush on his cheeks watered down the effect a great deal, to his annoyance. "Would you control yourself? That mouth of yours ought to have soap in it!"

Across the room Prussia rolled his eyes and replied jeeringly, "Sure thing, Mama Austria." before they both fell back on moody silence, old aggressions dug up between them. Austria watched him blow out one last puff of smoke before snubbing it out on the ashtray next to the chair. Germany's insistence on his Führer's health studies and his neurotic need for a clean household clashed in odd ways, Austria thought.

Prussia shifted and Austria's attention turned back to the couch. He watched as the other Nation rose, little smudges of grey refuse falling from his shirt. Germany would definitely yell at him later, Austria affirmed.

"Haven't gotten any less boring over the years, have you, Austria?" the other commented.

Austria turned his nose up in response.

"No response?" Prussia said jeeringly. "You _have_ let yourself go, haven't you? I bet it was Hungary, wasn't it? Thought she could make a husband out of the little priss. Or was it the other way around-"

"Do not speak of my ex-wife that way," Austria's temper flared. "Just because you have always relished being alone that does not give you any right to poke fun of my relationships, Prussia!"

"Hey, I'm just saying!" Prussia snapped back, suddenly irritable as well. "You're the one who's become dependent! You've let yourself become soft."

Austria's fist tightened. "Is that what you think this is? That- that I have this union with Germany because I'm _dependent_ on him?"

Prussia shrugged, though the motion was aggravated. "Like hell if I know. Sure looks like it," he grumbled.

"…You don't understand me at all, do you, Prussia?" Austria said coldly, after a pause.

Prussia turned away with his arms crossed, not caring if it looked childish. "Likewise," he snapped over his shoulder.

Austria let the door slam on his way out.

* * *

><p>"Have you seen Austria?" Germany asks at dinner. The question isn't that unusual, given how busy Germany was recently, Prussia's reluctance to leave his room some days, and Austria's distant nature as of late. On any given day one of them could be absent from the dinner table.<p>

Prussia wishes he could have been. He pokes at the potatoes on his plate and gives a moody, "Nope."

Germany's look immediately turns suspicious. "Brother, have you upset him again…-"

"Christ, Lutz, just because the little priss has his panties in a bunch that doesn't mean I caused it, okay?" he snaps, throwing his napkin on the table forcefully. "I'm going out. Thanks for dinner," he mutters, leaving little chance for the other to respond before he's out the door. It slams behind him and Germany blinks.

* * *

><p>He finds Austria in a park not far from Germany's house. It's cold out, and Prussia curses that fact as he rubs his hands together and puffs little breaths of warmth between them.<p>

"Y-You couldn't have r-run off to somewhere warmer?" his voice chatters, hiding the annoyance still simmering stubbornly in his mind. Austria is sitting on a bench under the moon and though he at least had enough sense to grab a jacket before storming out, Prussia can see that his lips are blue and his ears are red to the point of being numb. He feels an unexpected twinge of guilt at the sight.

When Austria starts, turning his head to look up at the Prussian in surprise, Prussia can see how the moonlight reflects off of Austria's eyes underneath his lashes and he's almost startled at the visual. In the moonlight, Austria's eyes are the most brilliant shade of violet he's ever seen and Prussia swallows hard.

"Lutz was wondering where you were," he mutters when Austria doesn't respond. And then adds, to cover his tracks, "He sent me to find you."

"Oh," Austria says. His voice is quieter than before. There's less yelling, less pain, less devastation in the air between them, and Prussia realizes that he can actually breathe in this atmosphere.

He jams his hands into his pockets and shifts uncomfortably. "So, uh, I guess we should head ba-"

"My relationship with Hungary was never happy," Austria interrupts, suddenly. "We tried to make it one, and there were days where I thought…where I thought we could be one. But in the end, what we wanted was too different and I think that we were both relieved when it ended."

Prussia's mind short-circuits for a moment and all he can think to say is, "O-Oh."

Austria nods as if it had been a reasonable reply and continues, "You are right, in that I have let myself become dependent on alliances and political marriages to save me over the years. When the war ended and the negotiations read that I could no longer hide myself in sheltering alliances, I…there was a part of me that was relieved by it," he admits. "So when Germany announced the annexation, I was outraged…and glad. Because when I was alone after the war, I had forgotten how truly lonely it was."

Prussia watches Austria as it falls silent between them. There's something in the other's eyes that makes his heart itch and thinks back to his own years after the war that changed everything. The humiliation and the debt…France, the bastard, his smug face when their little and crumbling attempt at a republic failed. Austria had stood there too, he remembers, and watched. Though Prussia had known just how hard the end of the war had been for the little master as well. He had watched as Austria had crumbled in on himself, twisted and pulled and turned by politics until there was nothing left but to accept Anschluss.

Those hands had ruled Europe, once.

"You aren't alone, you know," he says suddenly. Austria looks startled. "You have Germany, even if the alliance comes misguided. You have me."

"Prussia…" Austria wavers but Prussia waves him off, afraid of getting too sentimental.

"C'mon," he says. "Let's get back before Germany works himself over in worry."

Prussia offers his hand and Austria hesitates. He doesn't actually expect the other to take it, get to his feet, and let their frozen fingers intertwine. Prussia's determined to not let his blush get the better of him.

"Thank you," Austria murmurs.

"Just giving you a hand, specs. No need to thank me for basic chivalry," he ducks his head, hiding the bright red of his cheeks.

Austria laughs softly and suddenly the air is a lot warmer than Prussia remembers and the cold a lot more bearable. He doesn't pull his hand away, and Austria looks like he wouldn't have let go anyway. "I wasn't talking about that," he says.

Prussia scuffs his boot against the ground and hides his smile.

* * *

><p><strong>Things of importance:<strong> Following WWI, Austria-Hungary was officially dissolved with Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The treaty formed the First Republic of Austria as well as many new independent nation-states and as a result, Austria fell into a period of chaos both financially and politically. Like Germany, Austria struggled to bring in more democratic measures to the country with political factions within the state squabbling for power. When Engelbert "Millimetternich" Dollfuss ((hahaha I am never going to get over that)) came to power in 1932, he set the period of Austrofascism and dictatorship in Austria. His anti-Nazi measures eventually led to his assassination in 1935 and would have resulted in the annexation of Austria then had Mussolini not stepped in. ((As a note, Dollfuss was shot twice, once by the throat and once in his back which paralyzed him below the waist (not that it would have mattered- the assassins refused to let medical help reach him and he died in his office in agonizing pain). I thought it would be an interesting take on canon!Austria in a wheelchair through connection to that.)) On March 12, 1938, Austria had officially been annexed into Germany  
><strong>Also see:<strong> Prussia post-WWI | Weimar Republic | Nazi anti-tobacco movement | Bismarck's North German Confederation flag ((Sorry if I'm forgetting anything!))


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